Japan, along with the 10 member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), are planning to develop a cyberdefense network.

According to The Daily Yomiuri on Monday, unnamed sources said the move comes after a series of cyberattacks against Web sites of government offices and corporation in many of these countries. All 10 countries have agreed to establish the network because many of the recent attacks are believed to have originated from China.

Under the system, the Japanese government plans to share information on cyberattack patterns and technologies to defend against these attacks. It also plans to carry out exercises to verify the effectiveness of the system within the current fiscal year.

In particular, the government plans to construct a system to facilitate communication between officials in charge of online security in each country so they can share information about attacks. It will also be possible for the countries to take joint counter-measures when one of them is attacked, the report noted.

More details of the network will be discussed at the international working-level consultation on information security in Tokyo on Oct. 10 and Oct. 11 later this week, the sources added.